This invention relates to a kitchen or domestic food slicer.
Various simple forms of kitchen slicers for domestic use are known but have not proved particularly satisfactory for enabling a range of slice thickness to be achieved. In one form, a flat bed is provided and the food item to be sliced is reciprocated back and forth over the bed. The bed is in two parts and one is tipped with a knife blade. This part can be raised or lowered relative the other part so as to provide an opening bounded by the knife blade. Then as the food item is drawn past this opening the knife blade takes a slice from the food item. The manner of adjustment and the extent to which the one part is raised above the other so as to vary the slice in thickness is not simple, convenient and consistent.
Other known kitchen slicer designs are disclosed in British Patent Nos. 395105; 848046; and 881919. These designs provide for adjustment of the slice thickness by various mechanisms, but each has the drawback of being relatively complex in either or both of structure and operation. It is the primary aim of the present invention to provide an improved kitchen or domestic food slicer which is simple both to adjust and operate.
According to the invention, a kitchen or domestic food slicer comprises a substantially flat bed surface over which a food item to be sliced is manually reciprocable; a knife traversing the bed surface in an opening therein and pivotable about an axis substantially transverse to said direction of reciprocation, the knife having a sharp leading edge; a sliding bar positioned at either side of the bed surface, the bars having inclined cam surfaces engaging opposite ends of the knife, and being mounted longitudinally to vary the angle of the knife in the opening and thereby to raise or lower the sharp leading edge of the knife relative to the surface so as to alter the thickness of a slice severed from the food item; and means for positioning the bars to set the knife to cut a preselected slice thickness.
In the kitchen slicer of the invention, therefore, it is only the knife blade itself which is moved to adjust the thickness of the slice and the slicer can readily be adjusted to preset the required slicing thickness.
Preferably, movement of the sliding bars is accomplished via a rotatable knob at one end of the bed surface which is linked to the bars such that rotation of the knob is translated into lengthwise movement of the bars, thereby to adjust the angle of the knife in the opening. In such an embodiment, the user can quickly and simply preset and select the angle of the knife, and so the slice thickness, by rotation of the knob to a desired position, e.g. relative a scale marking, and the resulting knife position will be retained during the cutting operation and the knife held securely in that orientation by engagement of its opposite side edges with the cams on the sliding bars.
A kitchen slicer according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.